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How to Add Soft Focus to a Photo

There are soft focus lenses and filters that you can use to give your pictures a softer look even though the pictures are perfectly in focus. You can achieve this same effect using a photo editing program. While most photo editing programs will let you adjust exposure and crop, when it comes to adding effects like this, you need more advanced programs like Adobe Photoshop, GIMP or Paint.NET. Both GIMP and Paint.NET are free.

Instructions

- 1
  Open Adobe Photoshop or the free version of the program GIMP or Paint.NET. Click "File" in the navigation bar and select from the drop-down menu "Get photo." While the wording may be slightly different from program to program, the steps are the same.
- 2
  Click the folder and the image you want to edit with the program. Click the "OK" tab in the bottom right of the window, which will open the picture in the software.
- 3
  Click on "Filter" in the navigation bar and select "Blur" from the menu. Select "Gaussin" blur from the drop-down menu. Adjust the "Radius" slider to "5." The radius adjustment is for the intensity of the effect you are adding. Click " OK" to add the blur to your photo.
- 4
  Click "File" and select "Save as." Give your adjusted photo a new name and save it to your photos folder on your computer's hard drive.

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